Democrats keep using the same word to describe Trump’s DACA decision

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) greets President-elect Donald Trump at inauguration ceremonies swearing in Trump as president on the West front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S.

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Thomson Reuters

A host of Democratic politicians have criticized President Donald Trump’s decision on Tuesday to phase out the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals policy, which protects from deportation people who are living in the US illegally after being brought to the country as minors.

In doing so, many of them homed in on one word in particular to describe the decision: cruel.

Leading the charge was former President Barack Obama, who enacted the DACA policy through an executive order in 2012. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Obama called the White House’s decision “self-defeating” and “cruel” because it would send the children of immigrants back to countries they barely remember, and in some cases, don’t know the language.

“To target these young people is wrong – because they have done nothing wrong,” Obama said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden used the same language as Obama, saying in a Facebook post that deporting DACA recipients is “cruel.”

“It is inhumane. And it is not America,” Biden said.

And the same word popped up in the statement from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who called Trump’s decision “a cruel act of political cowardice.”

The three were far from the only Democrats to use the word on Tuesday and Wednesday. Take a look at what other members of the party had to say.

Eric Holder, Attorney General under Obama:

Undoing #DACA unnecessary & cruel.Extremists favor this-not majority. Inconsistent with who we say we are as a nation. Dreamers-good for USA